Counterattack!

Description

The Horde commends your successes against the Kolkar, but the Kolkar themselves are maddened. I have reports that a contingent of Kolkar has traveled to the Barrens from their home in Desolace, to seek vengeance. My latest report was that, even now, they move against these bunkers, from the west!

Face the Kolkar invaders, and end their threat in the Barrens. Kill them until their leader, Warlord Krom'zar, appears. Defeat him and bring me a piece of his banner as proof.

Gains

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Comments

Comment by Lailoken

This is the last in a line of quests that had you killing centaur and centaur leaders the Barrens over. This final quest spawns a battle between Horde forces and Centaur forces. The Horde forces are typically overrun by the Centaur, unless you help.

In order to get Warlord Krom'zar to spawn, a number of centaur must be defeated. Krom'zar is no pushover though, he's a level 20 elite and comes with a pair of bodyguards, and there's also the rest of the centaur to worry about. Best to do this with others, and the Horde forces can also be counted on to help.

Comment by thrazznos

This quest can be very deceiving. It is yellow at like lvl 19, but even at a level as high as 22 it cannot be soloed without immense trouble.

Warlord Krom'zar appears on the southern side as far as I can tell, and he comes with his two buddies. The best strategy is to fight only in the south battle so as to get the upper hand with the NPC's on your team. If the Kolkar are outnumbered when Krom'zar appears, then the NPCs can help you with damage and aggro.

The biggest thing to watch out for is the casters that cast Lightning Cloud. It is an aoe attack that will completely destroy any kind of upper had that you can have by wasting your NPC's. If you are careful of that then getting the upper hand is possible.

Overall the best strategy is to just get another lvl 20 or so to help you with the quest. No matter what happens, usually 2 people can DPS him down before he kills them both.

Comment by ahitz

I'm sure much easier with 2 people, but I was able to solo as a level 19 hunter. I'd recommend waiting to 20, though, since it took me a couple tries and I finished at about 5 life.

Get the southern fight thinned out. Hunter's mark a bodyguard and lay a trap. When Krom'zar and guards are fighting orcs, hit Krom'zar with a sting and then dps down the marked guard. Krom'zar and the other guard will probably kill off the rest of the orcs and come for you. Drop a trap, concussive shot Krom'zar, sting the guard and put the pet on the guard. Run away from the battle toward the south. The trap, pet and sting should kill the bodyguard, leaving just Krom'zar for you to kite using jump-spin concussive shots and a run-through wing clip if he gets too close. He'll follow you pretty far, so make a wide loop south of the road. Kite and dps using pet (taunt OFF), traps, and jump-spin sting and arcane shots.

Comment by Prettyflower

If you play a DPS warrior it's not to rough, but it's a good idea to carry Healing pots for this, even with help.

Comment by Naenthos

Seems nigh impossible to solo as a level 23 shaman. I've tried quite a few times now.

Comment by ynoo

to esey solo by 21 bloodelf hunter :) you guys suck ;)

Comment by moonasha

I managed to solo it with 3% of my health left as a 22 rogue. This is a very annoying quest, I would do it with someone else if I were you. You don't even have to be in the same group.

Comment by antiqaj

Soloable with a level 18+ hunter by kiting Krom'zar to Crossroads and having the guards kill him. Since you don't need the credit for killing the corpse due to the banner being lootable by anyone with the quest, this is a valid strategy.

Comment by Anvil

Soloable as a mage level 20+. Just keep the adds to a minimum and when he spawns drag him into the crowd of friendly NPCs.

If all else fails, sheep his caster guard and simply kite him and the melee guard to XR.

Comment by Rinkai

Call me a liar if you want, but this quest is quite easily soloable as a level 17 hunter.

I completed it without getting hit once, I just used a mana pot.

Kiting of sorts, he and his body guards run the same speed as you, so get maximum distance away from him, shoot and keep running towards xr, no need for concussive, use all your mana on arcane shots and keeping him stinged, he needs to be at 50% max hp when you get to XR so when the guards kill him the kill counts as yours(That's if you want to loot him ofc, you could just hit him a couple of times as you don't need to loot him to finish the quest).

Have fun. :p

Comment by Voff

Soloed by level 19 druid:

entangling root on him, kill one add.entangling root again, kill the other add.entangling root untill you are 100% health and mana.

Get in and fight him down to around 50%, do the same thing over and over again, took about 3-5 minutes.

Comment by kronnyq

This is a fun quest, I've always enjoyed it. Why there is no reward we'll never know. Lots of XP and loot is nice however.

I just solo'd as level 20 Fury Warrior. Make sure you have plenty of NPCs alive on your side, then target and kill his guards first. If he comes after you, hamstring (or other slowing effect) and run, he will eventually aggro back to the guards. Go attack him again and repeat if he keeps chasing you.

Comment by Arx4

For those who didn't do the quest right away.

To start the event, just simply talk to him(Quest Giver) and ask "Where is Warlord Krom'zar?"

And you'll see couple of Horde Defenders and Kolkar starting to appear. West of the bunker your at, to be more specific.

Comment by iioc

Soloed by level 19 hunter after Blood Shards of AgamagganWith all buffs its too easy.Think quest can be complite earlier... on 16 may be.

Comment by Woyruu

After couple of tries soloed as 22 belf priest, with all points in shadow. It was on the edge, though.

Comment by phiktion

soloed as 18 belf paladin

Comment by henkwich

If you're lazy as me and have a higher leveled character beside the one you're doing the quest on you can just go with the quest-char to the place of the event and start it. then you log on your higher char and kill the centaurs. log on the questchar again and loot the banner piece. Presto :)

Comment by Prettyflower

If you can find a Healer this quest is a breeze. I did this with a Warrior at 19. When Warlord Krom'zar shows, shot him from a distance, you can then kite him and only him off to a safe distance were it is only you vs him. That's where the Healer comes in, keeping you alive until his Guards return to the main battle. It's not nearly as easy as having a high lvl help you but it is one way to do the quest.

Comment by hallenajm

its right in front of the char-quest

Comment by Warhead

I solo-ed it at 18 as a druid. It was very easy, just stay behind your own NPC's and then pull him, use Entangling Roots/ any other kiting ability- and the NPC's will damage him while he runs to you. Run away while he chases you and eventually the NPC's will damage him enough for you to finish him.

Comment by Indoril

Soloed as a level 20 warlock. Killed off his two buddies and ran away, kited him to an unoccupied area and fear-dotted him to death.

Elementary warlock stuff. It took me a while to do it because killing off his bodyguards is hard without getting killed, and I ran desperately low on both health and mana (I had to use a minor mana potion and a healthstone, and I had still life-tapped myself down to empty) but I did it without dying.

Comment by pond

my advice, don't be a hero and try and solo it, bring friends, it is hella good fun in a group.

Comment by Balkoth15

Awesome quest, without a doubt the most fun quest in the Barrens. Some advice, watch out for him, he can sneak up on you and kill you real fast with being an Elite and all. He hit me once as a priest and he must have crit, brought me down to below 50(HP).One more piece of advice... Unless you're a class that can heal itself, I would bring a friend; It's Solo-able if you know what you're doing, but if it's your first time and you don't have atleast someone there to help, you're likely to drop dead D:

Comment by hej2

Soloed as level 20 rogue.. Damn its hard!

Crippling poison for kiting, bring down the casters first so you can kite the elite and his melee adds.If you kite them over to the spawn point for your allies, they will assist you.

(I advise crippling on both weapons, or they wont proc fast enough for you to survive)

Comment by S0ur

Just soloed this as a 20 BM hunter. Was easier than expected. my pet tanked it till almst end then i got him trapped in fire and when back and back shoting at him till he died..

used aspect of cheetah and runed away from other kolkars

picked the flag , done

Comment by helriderthor666

Dont waste your time with this quest unless you are a twink, i tried it with a lvl23 warlock and it was green in my quest list but still seemed impossible, complete waste of time.

Comment by Erag

Troll Hunter 18lvl Quest is VERY HARD.I died 3 times and at 4 time waited for all guards that attack Elite mob and then he died i tooked piece of flag

Comment by mzidaho

finished this quest in less than 5 minutes. saw another player there, waiting around don't know for what. there were at least 20 centaurs around. I just ran in and started killing as lvl 23 BE pally. believe i killed bout 5 or so centaurs, then saw Warlord Kam'zar. 2 others were attacking him. joined in, and apparently another one was summoned. so another Warlord Kam'zar appeared but he was easily taken care of. got his flag, and handed in the quest! guess you should do what the other guy did, wait around till maybe someone else comes along =]

Comment by Orkinman

I must have done this quest on an off-day for the realm server.

I am a lvl 21 orc rogue. I did this alone. I killed about 3 or 4 kolkars before dying. I died 3 times. So I killed maybe a dozen. When I came back the 3rd time, an orc said "The kolkars are retreating!". I figured I failed the quest since I missed out on the action, but there was the banner all by itself. I ran over and grabbed a piece.

I kept looking around waiting to get mobbed, but it never happened. I turned in the flag piece and got the reward.

Maybe there was a glitch in the system??

Comment by Revrant

This wins my worst quest in The Barrens award, and one of the worst early Horde quests(the runaround Druid quests with ten minute flights back and forth from Moonglade to TB are contenders), not only is it Really difficult early on, but it has NO reward, that's right, NOTHING, 25 silver and some EXP doesn't scale with the difficulty.

Comment by fps100

Soloed as 20 warrior, didn't even die once. Killing enough centaurs to spawn warlord was easy enough, but kinda tough when warlord + 5 other centaurs are whacking your ass :) But it was doable.

Okay so I had 30 stam and 10 ag on legs and would've probably died without that hp boost.

Comment by midgetxslayer

solo'd as a 19 hunter...just took down his adds and kited him. only died once on a 1st attempt

Comment by retpallyftw

I soloed on my 22 hunter

It's quite easy u just hav to pull the guys into the guards and wen Kromzar comes let guards pull his adds while u kill him.

Comment by Stormkiss

Comment by fabke1987

solo'd lvl 23 warrior, died 1st time but it was a bad aproach...2nt time had alot of help from the defenders around who agro'd the other mobs around.

Comment by Grimshorn

You can infact kite him to the guards at Crossroads, i just did it on my mage.

Comment by aksel97

as a mage it is easy just aggro him and poly the main guy, kill the body guards and keep the poly effect on him as long as the horde guards respawn.

i did it as a lvl 22 mage on the first time.

Comment by Shemp

If you're a hunter you can kite him to the Crossroads where the guards will kill him. Simply keep hitting him with Serpent Sting and Concussive Shot.

Comment by Arkham

This quest seems to incorrectly list a rep gain of 88 with each Horde faction. I just did this quest, and I got 350 Orgrimmar rep (and no rep gain with any other factions).

Comment by stoffiona

Lol everyone says its so hard but its not i solo it in lvl 18 hunter ...

Comment by Slayme

Soloed it on my lvl 16 paladin, used blessing of protection and a pot, after he died his adds killed me though think i could have made it without dying if i had Loh but it was on cd =(

Comment by kimzky

Just did this solo as a level 21 fury warrior, killing the kolkars to get the warlord to summon was a piece, you just tank them and thunderclap them. They will be a piece of cake.

The warlord, he's not as easy as the other kolkars since he is a level 20 elite that comes with atleast 2-5 adds. Just taunt the elite from range and run, until the orcs+trolls that help you pick up his adds. When this happens, pop your Retaliation and Shield Block. Now fight in defensive stance and pop revenge as often as you can, if you dodge - change to battle stance and pop overpower, can also get alot easier if you sunder armor him.

What I am trying to say is that this quest is easily doable as a fury warrior, I made it with 100 hp left, after killing all the adds and the warlord himself, loot the banner and enjoy your free experience.

Comment by nokfed

soloed as a 20 hunter. it was kind of hard at first. i went to fight on the right side, but the npc never showed up. so i had to restart the battle and i went to the left side. It was a lot faster. just have to keep pushing the centurs back and the npc will come rushing up. I died before my pet did, but i ran back and the other hard forces were still fighting him so i just dpsed him down. I have poor, very poor, gear so it is possible at 20.

Comment by Belotz

soloed as lvl 22 hunter, quite easy my pet died but i'm Beast Mastery and the bonus of aspect of the monkey helped alot + kite him to some guards...oh and i dunno why when i completed the quest it said: You are now friendly with Silvermoon City... O.o

Comment by nzflash

Well i soloed this as a 26 roll hunter loli must of illed bout fifty of them befor i decided to leaveas i was running off he was just strollng around on the west side of the buildings

Comment by Larzomeister

Don't try this if you are a poorly geared character around lvl 19-22. My warrior and a friend of mine (Mage) tried this quest at lvl 21 as poorly geared characters died about four times each. If you are trying to solo as a poorly geared character use your guards for help. They may make the difference between life and death. And for when your fighting Krom-Zaar go full out and hit him with everything you've got, if you kill him even if you die you can come back and take his banner later. If you don't feel like dieing pull try to get the guards to aggro on to them, and run into the bunker and have the quest giver help you, i beleive he is lvl 26 so this should give you the advantage. Loot the banner and if the quest giver died wait for him to respawn and turn it in.

Comment by Lemogra

well i dont even like all of this comments... if you want to face with Krom'zar's (level 20 elite) JUST ASK TO YOUR QUEST GİVER " WHERE SHOULD İ FIND HIM" and battle begins there is lots of 16 - 19 mobs near him and can easiliy defeat them but boss is kinda tricky.. if you want to do solo you may need some healings and pots or you have to be in a party....

Comment by Guillermo2118

I found a really easy way to do this quest as a level 20 druid. After the boss spawns, hit him with faerie fire, and start running towards xroads. Kite him all the way to xroads and the guards at xroads will kill him for you. Just loot the banner and run back to the post. :D

Comment by Mirewen

Did this a while ago, never got the ability.

Comment by Nuimaster

Soloed as a level 19 mage. I used Frost Nova as much as possible as well as Fire Blast and Frostbolt. I had to kill him twice because some other dude summoned Krom'Zar and then logged. I couldn't get the banner the first time because I was dead.

EDIT: I died three times in the first wave (when the other dude summoned him) and once in the second wave (when I summoned him).

Comment by vipchan

I tried this one solo Undead Mage lvl 22 and it was impossible. A lvl 20 came around and we got Krom'zar to drop the banner no prob. HOWEVER, the lvl 20 who helped couldn't share the quest with me even though he was eligible. The good news is, all he had to do was go accept the quest from Regthar (30 feet away) and come back and grab the banner for himself.

*The more you know*

Comment by subby

I soloed this as a lvl 24 hunter, it was a quest i had forgotten, i had pretty good gear from boa items but still it was really kinda easy, i can understand how it might be hard for a clothie but it was not hard for me. My pet tank all 3, i just got him to change target when i took agro, i did use one hp pot as my cat pulled some extra mobs and i used multishot, but it wasn't an issue.

Comment by Stroque

soloable as a lv16 shammy. I dropped a stoneclaw totem and pulled him so all the adds went after the totem. Then i kept spamming earthbind totem and stoneclaw totem when they were off cd until i reached crossroads where the guards killed him for me :D

Comment by Etreum

For the record, the quest giver will not help you...

Comment by lgthomas

Pretty much the same quest in Cataclysm. I suggest you approach it the same way as before. However the quest rewards are much better now, particularly if you are a shield user.

LanceBeta tester for;Wrath of the Litch KingCataclysm

Comment by ministhe2nd

After reading the coments i tabbed back to game as an 80 worlock was finishing what great timing.

Comment by Clousy

Since patch 4.0.1, done very easily as a badly-geared 20 Hunter with a kitty - stay near the guards to the south, and pick off the Kolkar carefully - when the boss spawns, kite him, and drag his adds into the guards; they'll take care of him. Jump-shot Concussive-shot and SS and Arcane shot the main guy - both my kitty and I came out with nearly full health

Comment by alexiel

I didn't have to start the event at all, just walked right up to the flag and grabbed it.

Comment by RoRevenge

Just soloed as a level 21 Paladin and had no idea Krom'zar appeared before I completed it. Just make sure you keep yourself alive and you should be good.

Comment by Daveyray

18 Balance Druid, giving up. Takes forever to get the target to spawn, and when he does he is on me immediately ... I die, then he despawns and I repeat the process. I hope I can find a better use of my time.

Comment by Fayted

Soloed as a 19 Fire Mage with a bit of difficulty.

Krom'zar himself is not difficult to kill as he is just a melee target with no notable special attacks. The problem lies with all of the mobs that are around him and the ones that follow him. If you want to do this by yourself at a low level, you'll need some luck as you have to manage to pull him out while the weakling NPCs are killing the adds.

First of all, get him to spawn by killing off the random centaurs that are out and about, when he appears, do not go after him, back up and let everything respawn.

Now start killing centaurs that are between you and Krom'zar, taking care not to target the centaurs that directly link with him. Once there is a relatively clear path between you and Krom'zar + his personal adds, let all of the NPCs respawn. When they run after him, toss a Pyroblast at him because you want a DoT on him. As soon as you release the Pyroblast (ie. before it even hits him), start running away. If the pull goes through properly, he should only come at you with one add hopefully. As soon as he gets close to you, hit him with Frost Nova and Polymorph the add that is on you.

If more centaurs are coming after you, what you need to do is keep up Cone of Cold to slow them down while hitting Krom'zar with Fire Blast as you kite him away from where the centaurs respawn. Blink will help a lot to keep distance between yourself and the centaurs. If you do this correctly, you should manage to have just Krom'zar chasing you with maybe one add. At this point you just need to keep the add Polymorphed while you deal with Krom'zar.

You'll die a few times trying to do this because unless he pulls in a specific way, you're pretty much toast. If you want to avoid the hassle, grab a partner around your level as this quest is ridiculously easy with two people.

Comment by Holyvayer

Cataclysm patch 4.0.6

Easily soloed as a protection warrior level 20 with a couple heirlooms. You will have to kill like 30 centaurs before. When you see him, grab 5-6 centaur, Rend+Thunderclap (be sure you have the talent) and just spam Victory Rush and you will nuke him down without losing 1 hp.

In order to get the quest, be sure to talk to Thork in Crossroads for the quest Deathgate's Reinforcements. Thork will give you the quest only if you have completed all the quests in the 3 oasis.

Enjoy your new shield! :)

Comment by singe101

I killed many centaur, he spawned on the opposite side of the burning bunker away from horde forces.

The Shield of the Barrens (4 sta, 4 int) is exceedingly ugly, fwiw. It's like a troll child made it as a joke.

Comment by Ordius

Misleading requirements: States you need to be lvl 11 to pickup quest, however, prerequisite(s) are lvl 15.

Comment by NecroFeline

I'm lvl 15. Did the prequest but Regthar won't give me this quest, so there no way you get this quest at lvl 11.

Comment by HazardousPizza

Solo'd as a lvl 22 drood.Just aggro him, and kite him all around the bunker.After a while, he lost his adds and guards were attacking him.Then you root him and DoT him up or you just kitty his face (what I did)

Comment by Dalakaar

21 warrior, decked in heirlooms, this quest was a fun grind to the leader, never felt in danger even with the elite. (He died in about 5 seconds, brought his 2 adds and 2 more for measure, and a zhevra decided he didn't like my Thunderclap much so joined in as well.)

The cautionary warnings in these messages are definitely to be taken with a grain of salt if you're a decent player with heirlooms. (Much of this game is like that though, granted.) So, fellow heirloomed warriors, go nuts, it's a fun slaughter.

Victory Rush at this level is silly.

Comment by twinkerXD

hey guys, i did the first quest here and i cant do the second one after that! hes just not giving me anymore quest what should i do?

Comment by daesim

Solo'd as a lvl 20 Orc protection warrior, No Heirlooms. I'm really excited for people easily crushing content by being overgeared for it, but for those of us trying out different servers without access to that stuff, it isn't very helpful to know that we can beat a difficult quest simply by being overpowered for it. That's like boasting you could beat Bruce Lee by shooting him.

Comment by FubO

Wasn't so hard as i expected from reading these comments. I did it on level 19 mage on the first time. You just have to think and not rush right into him.

Comment by ToxicKirby

Haha, I'm a lvl 21 hunter and all I did was fight a few to the east of the quest giver and then head to the west and he was there. I pulled him and one of his guards out and he went down easily. I just used Cuncussive shot and Arcane shot. Brought him down fairly quick.

Comment by RoboArtist

and not a crap was given that day for hunters hahha. I was hoping this quest would at least drop something compatible for hunters. Oh well...

Comment by Mufasah

I feel the quest would be better if there was more variety in the rewards. 2 shields? Level 21 Druid - did not feel the love on completing this one.

Comment by AuronCaton

Maybe they've made it easier or something but I solo'd this quest with a level 19 tank spec Tauren Paladin! Again thanks for being awesome fellow Wowheaders, never fails to help me!

Comment by brookerbean

Perfection! Took about 10 secs on my end game Pally. Thanks for the tip!

Comment by Lethalgnome

As a level 20 Resto Shaman with some dungeon gear(700hp/1000mana) I managed to get the guards to attack the pack while I healed myself and used Flame Shock.I recommend using this if you are this class/spec.

Comment by gkelley55

Change the requirements to lvl 15 instead of 11 like it should be please. I just spent 45 mins doing the quest leading up to this for my lvl 14 twink shield.

Comment by Ludovico

This quest is NOT available at level 13!

Comment by Furryness85

I'm guessing this was lower at one point or another, but as for someone trying to twink a 14 paladin like i am, you will not be able to do all the quests yourself and just get a friend or guild mate to help. you can do most of the quests chain, except 1. Which requires you to be level 15....kinda defeats the purpose of 14 twinking a pally.

Comment by CandiCayne

Soloed on my 23 Elemental Shaman who was doing the quest, but i have to admit it was hard and i used Healing Surge more often than i honestly expected (before reading this)

Comment by Ibarrai

Soloed as druid balance lvl 20. Just spam Moonfire and Sunfire, run on circles, heal you with Rejuvenation, some NPCs can help you. The elite and 3 or 4 mobs attack me, so i spam Rejuvenation every 4 to 5 seconds.

Comment by Tesal

Poor orc, he doesn't know that Garrosh in charge now :>

Comment by Grayy

So, I had to do a little looking into this one in order to unlock it.

Here's a list of the quests I did in the order I did them to unlock Counterattack.

Comment by Roygeebiv

Most of the battle I was just healing the horde guards that came to help. I often ended up taking aggro in the fights, but easily finished off the one or two centaurs that came at me.

When Krom'zar appeared the mobs seemed to get heavier. I was doing a lot of healing on myself, casting the occasional earthshock, but letting my guards do a lot of the work. Continued this tactic all the way thru killing Krom'zar. My guards kept showing up. During the heaviest part of the battle I was healing only myself since the guards weren't being attacked. Occasionally a lighting storm would be cast over us requiring me to kite the mob away.

Comment by chad948

Even after the Cataclysm revamp, when you complete the quest he says he'll tell Thrall about your actions. Don't you mean you'll tell Garrosh, Mr. Regthar Deathgate?

Comment by Drekker

Pretty Hard to solo for an Arms Warrior no heirlooms, at level 19 I kept dying. I came back at level 21.

Don't attack any centaur unless one of your allies attacks first, it will keep you from being overwhelmed when Krom'zar comes. I learned the hard way, instead of having Krom and 4 other centaur...I had like 8 the first time.

When he shows up just stay behind you allies and let them grab the adds, then focus completely on Krom'zar, back away so the spellcasters don't attack you. You should have lesser healing potions at least (they drop pretty frequently from mobs). I killed him, but then the adds killed me...but it doesn't matter the banners there when you come back.